In 1980, Andy Warhol returned to his roots as a commercial illustrator by creating his Shoes series. Warhol implemented his signature style of repetition, arranging the shoes in a seemingly haphazard, yet methodical manner. The composition provides a candid perspective of shoes, spilled out on the floor in no particular order, but also presents the various views of the classic high-heel, leaving no element of the shoe hidden. The conceptualization of these prints, undoubtedly, is a revival of the beginning of his artistic career in which his specialty was none other than women’s shoes.

DIAMOND DUST SHOES 256 AS PART OF ANDY WARHOL’S LARGER BODY OF WORK

During the early 1980s, Andy Warhol was forming bonds with a number of younger artists in the New York art scene including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and David Salle. Warhol saw a re-emergence of critical and financial success during this period of his life. In the mid-1980s, Warhol took a step back from screenprinting and created work and for television show Saturday Night Live, had a guest appearance on the “Hidden Treasure; Picture From the Past; Ace’s Salary” episode of the The Love Boat in 1985 and produced music videos for rock bands such as The Cars. Warhol also signed with a few modeling agencies, appearing in fashion shows and numerous print and television ads. His television shows Andy Warhol’s T.V. (1983) and Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes (1985) were broadcast on New York cable television and nationally on MTV.

About Andy Warhol

Obsessed with celebrity, consumer culture, and mechanical (re)production, Pop artist Andy Warhol created some of the most iconic images of the 20th century. As famous for his quips as for his art—he variously mused that “art is what you can get away with” and “everyone will be famous for 15 minutes”—Warhol drew widely from popular culture and everyday subject matter, creating works like his 32 Campbell's Soup Cans (1962), Brillo pad box sculptures, and portraits of Marilyn Monroe, using the medium of silk-screen printmaking to achieve his characteristic hard edges and flat areas of color. Known for his cultivation of celebrity, Factory studio (a radical social and creative melting pot), and avant-garde films like Chelsea Girls (1966), Warhol was also a mentor to artists like Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. His Pop sensibility is now standard practice, taken up by major contemporary artists Richard Prince, Takashi Murakami, and Jeff Koons, among countless others.

American, 1928-1987, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, based in New York, New York